


Sharing Each Other with Their Own Private Worlds

by danvillehawkins



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Best Friends, F/M, Mileven, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-02-06 13:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12818157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvillehawkins/pseuds/danvillehawkins
Summary: Drabble/oneshot collection of Mike Wheeler and El Hopper's unique love story. The sweet little moments nobody witnessed but them. (Fluff? Oh yes.)Current chapter: Mike and El honor the anniversary of one of the most important days of their lives...





	1. Help and Hold

To say Mike Wheeler was protective over Eleven would be an understatement. Not in an unhealthily over-controlling way, no, never like that, but losing the person you liked to a monster from another dimension and not knowing if she was okay (or even alive) for an entire year tended to make a person a little more protective than most. More often than not, Mike found himself doting on El—helping her with anything she did, holding onto her, or giving her long hugs. 

As the final afternoon bell rang, El shut her locker to find her favorite person approaching, a loving signature smile growing on Mike's face as he came to a stop in front of her. “Ready to go?” Mike asked. El nodded, putting her last textbook into her backpack and zipping it shut. Mike grabbed one sleeve of her jacket, helping her into it before she picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. 

The two fourteen-year-olds began walking hand-in-hand towards the exit of the school, when Mike suddenly let go of his love's hand. “I-I'm sorry...” Mike began. 

El looked confused, coming to a stop as Mike did the same. “For what?” 

“Y'know.” 

El gave a slight shake of her head. “I don't know. For what, Mike?” 

“For always holding onto you, and giving you help with every little thing. You don't need me to do that. You can take down demogorgons, you can fight off anyone who threatens either of us, hell, you can throw vans with your mind! You're awesome; you don't need to have someone like me clinging onto you all the time.” 

There was a short pause as El took in Mike's words. “I like it.” 

A look that was a mixture of awe and confusion crossed Mike's face. “You do?” he asked. 

El nodded. “Yes. It's nice.” She gave a sly smile as she grabbed Mike's hand once again. A blush crossed the boy's freckled face as they resumed walking, unknowingly intertwining their fingers together as they exited the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed my first installment of my Mileven fics. I know this chapter was a bit short, but I think that's the beautiful thing about Mike and El, they communicate so many emotions in so few words. I currently have 15 chapters in-progress and hope to come up with even more ideas once I get those done and posted. These will all be stand-alone oneshots, there's no continuous plot, and they don't happen in a chronological order. I like when fic authors post all their oneshots as chapters of one work, because it makes them easier to find and come back to, so that's how I shall be posting these. ~Eve


	2. Warmth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I'm back! I'm super sorry to have had such a long gap between posting chapters, but between trying to find a new job, being my family's personal taxi, having to take care of a family member healing from surgery, depression making me unmotivated, and my sister constantly taking my laptop to work on her drawings and voice acting, it took me an embarrassingly long time to finish this one.  
> I promise you won't have to wait this long for the next ;)

It was really no surprise that El loves big blankets. Having spent the first nearly twelve years of her life with minimal luxuries, sleeping under thin sheets on hard mattresses, El got excited over the smallest things that everyone else took for granted. There was just something about the comfort brought by a big blanket, the soft fabric that felt so nice against her skin, the extra warmth it provided, the safe feeling of its heavy hug. It was a habit she had started when she first began living with Hopper, wrapping herself in a blanket to watch television or read a book. The only thing El found better than snuggling with a blanket was when she was joined under said blanket by her favorite person, Mike Wheeler. 

The rain had started with little warning. What had begun as a clear summer day turned cloudy and rainy in a matter of minutes, too quickly for the two sixteen-year-olds to get back to the Wheeler house before the downpour started. When they entered, soaking wet, through the basement backdoor, they were met with a chilling gust from the air conditioner. The two of them both let out a shriek as the cold blasted them in the faces. “Hold on, I'll find us some towels and dry clothes!” Mike exclaimed as he ran off towards the laundry area. Returning after a moment, he handed El a fresh towel along with a clean striped t-shirt of his and a pair of navy blue shorts from the laundry basket. “Here you go. You can go change first,” he says with his signature soft voice reserved only for El, casually gesturing towards the bathroom. After both of them had their turn to change clothes and towel-dry their hair, they joined each other on the old couch. Mike grabbed a plaid quilt that was sitting folded at one end of the couch and wrapped it around the two of them. They sat cuddled together in a comfortable silence for no more than ten seconds before Mike let out a chuckle. “Remember the night we first met? It was storming, just like this, and I brought you home and gave you dry clothes.”

El nodded, “Yeah.”

Mike became somber, thinking back upon everything El had been through leading up to them meeting, “You were so scared and helpless, I couldn't let you stay out there alone.”

El gave a small smile. Mike had always been too good to her, so nice and generous. 

He wrapped his arm around her, slightly leaning closer against her, “I'm glad we found each other.” Although several years had passed and the assholes from Hawkins Lab were no longer an existing threat, Mike still felt boiling anger towards them and sorrow for El whenever he thought back to all the torture she faced at the hands of them as a child.

As El nodded in agreement with Mike's statement, he started shuffling around before she could even tell him “Me, too.”

“I have an idea,” Mike stated after El looked to see him shrugging the blanket off of him, “Let's lay here together,” he began to blush after realizing how bold his suggestion was, “I-if you want.”

“Yeah,” El responded with an expression somewhere between curious, happy, and excited. 

She and Mike began trying to figure out the most ideal way to lay beside each other in the relatively small area, “Wait, maybe I should lie down first, then...yeah, now you get right here, El,”

The two were now squished together tight and cozy, with Mike laying on his back, and El laying on her side between him and the back cushions. She laid her head on his chest, draping her arm across him. Mike reached up and began running the fingers on one hand through her still-damp curls, using his other hand to pull the blanket over them once again. With a small smile at Mike's action, El closed her eyes and gave a soft hum, followed by, “This is nice.”

“It sure is,” Mike agreed with a smile. This was the first time the two had laid together in such an intimate way, and so far it was a wonderful feeling, getting to be so close to the person you care so much about and would do anything for. It was blissful and exciting, while also being the most relaxing and calming feeling either of the two had ever experienced. Perhaps a little too relaxing, because in a matter of minutes, sleep had overtaken both Mike and El.

When Mike awoke an hour later, too warm and almost sweaty thanks to the combination of blanket and body heat, he didn't even care. El was comfortable and still sleeping against him, and most importantly, she was safe. He pressed a small kiss to her forehead. He would suffer through the temperatures of hell if it meant he got to have a moment with this amazing girl.


	3. Anniversary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for not publishing anything lately! I had a bunch of stuff going on in life, and I was just kinda unmotivated, I suppose. But my love of ST has come back tenfold over the past few weeks (thanks to Halloween and hype for season 3) and I got the idea for this chapter a few days ago and couldn't WAIT to write it! (also it's very very fluffy and soft and I almost died from the cuteness I created while writing it; I hope you all enjoy)

Mike and El Wheeler never missed an opportunity to honor anniversaries of important days of their life together—the night they met, the night they were separated, the night they were reunited, the day that they officially became boyfriend and girlfriend, the day they got engaged, their wedding day—you name it, they remembered it. Tonight was one of those nights. A Wednesday that would have been nothing significant to just about anyone else, but was everything to these two. 

The two of them were on their sofa together; Mike sitting at the end, with El's back against his side and her legs stretched out across the rest of the cushions as she paid attention to a television drama. Mike _had_ been reading something on his tablet, but he had set it down in favor of gazing at his wife instead. After waiting until the commercial break so as to not interrupt his lady's concentration, he wrapped his arm around her, and she leaned further into him and closed her eyes in comfort. 

“Hey El, you know what day it is?” Mike asked, still using his lovestruck soft voice after all these years.

“Of course,” El replied, a smile forming on her face as she opened her eyes again, turning her head up slightly to look at him, “Happy Home Day, Mike.”

Home Day was what they had dubbed this day decades before—November 7th, the anniversary of the fateful night in 1983 when they found each other in the woods of Hawkins as Mike, Lucas, and Dustin searched for Will, and as El searched for...anywhere that wouldn't be found by the corrupt people of Hawkins Lab. That was the night Mike took her in, back to his house, and gave her clean clothes, food, and a comfortable place to sleep. However, none of that compared to the most important thing he had given her that night—friendliness, respect, genuine concern, a sense of safety and belonging. A _home_. 

Mike beamed, overcome with affection once again, thinking about how far she'd come and how much she'd overcome and accomplished in the time since then. The things they'd accomplished together. “Happy Home Day, El.”

He reached over and picked her up, pulling her over to sit across his lap, circling his arms around her. El giggled, leaning into his chest. “Hard to believe it's been 35 years now,” Mike said, “And you still find ways to fascinate me and make me love you more every day,” he added. El let out a soft gasp. “Sorry, I'm just feeling sappy--” Mike began, before El cut him off.

“No, Mike. Listen at _that_ ,” El stated quietly but excitedly as she muted the tv with her mind. Immediately, Mike realized what was going on. It was beginning to pour down rain, paralleling the exact night from so long ago. “Just like when we met,” El said.

Mike hugged her a bit tighter. “Whoa, that's incredible,” he said, partially to himself and partially to his wife. What a coincidence that the universe would choose such a big year to mimic the conditions in which they met. He rested his head on top of hers, and she relaxed into his embrace even more. The feelings of tranquility and happiness overtook both of the 47-year-olds as memories of their beginning mixed with bliss from cuddling in this moment and hearing the muffled sounds of their teenage daughter and young adult daughter laughing at who-knows-what from in one of their bedrooms. Oh, this felt so much better than being soaking wet and terrified. 

After several minutes, the couple's silence was broken by a simple “Mike?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Let's eat Eggos to celebrate,”  
Followed by the two of them running off to the kitchen to honor their origins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun little fact, it actually was raining where I live on their anniversary this year, and that's what gave me this entire idea. Even mother nature wanted to commemorate the beginnings of mileven :')


End file.
